Cleveland Cavaliers need more than new coach to succeed (Speaking of Sports)

It can't always be the coach's fault, and by hiring Mike Brown to coach their team AGAIN, Cavs officials are publicly admitting that it wasn't the coach's fault when they fired him three years ago.

Maybe that's why Mike Brown was doing so much smiling, laughing and guffawing at his re-introductory news conference on Wednesday. He knows he's not on the hot seat now. He knows that by hiring him a second time as the team's coach, his bosses have put themselves, not him, on the hot seat.

You would smile too, if it happened to you.

The underlying theme to Wednesday's giddy Brownfest was the Cavs' management team's admission that "We blew it," when they fired Brown three years ago.

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There was so much nervous giggling by the principles in the news conference that while the elephant in the room may have been how all this impacts the chances of eventually bringing LeBron James back to Cleveland, the rhinoceros in the room was what the mere existence of such a bizarre news conference says about the astuteness of the Cavs' management team.

This was, in ways too numerous and ominous to contemplate, a moment in the franchise's history that tilted perilously close to the clownish operation of Cleveland's professional football team over the last dozen years.

Indeed, the event had all the trappings and uncomfortable awkwardness of a Browns news conference.

You know how that goes: dismissing all past failures with a suspiciously breezy, "It's going to be all right now."

The big winner, obviously, is Brown. He's been hired with the admission that he never should have been fired. That, in turn, throws the ball of responsibility and accountability for what happens next squarely into the lap of those above Brown on the company's organizational chart.

Whether intended or not, the Cavs announced to its customers on Wednesday that the problem here isn't the guy who is coaching the team, but those responsible for constructing it.

That goes right to the top of the organization. Owner Dan Gilbert, who provides the money and, ultimately and rightfully, decides how it's spent, and General Manager Chris Grant, the organization's basketball brains.

That Gilbert previously fired the coach he has now re-hired doesn't exactly promote the intended "It's going to be all right now" theme of Wednesday's warm and fuzzies.

Again, the nervous laughter and giggling at the news conference indicated that everyone in the room realized that.

What comes next is what's most important now. It starts with the fact that Brown may have more job security, and as much clout and sway when it comes to organizational decisions as any coach in the NBA at the moment. The "it was us, not you who screwed up" acknowledgment implicit in his re-hiring guarantees that.

Next up: Gilbert and Grant must now prove they know how to build a winner. The last time Cavs officials seriously went about this task, it was a ping pong ball, not them, who did it.

Winning the lottery the year LeBron James was the payoff required no great strategizing, scouting, or player evaluation.

Surrounding James with the right cast of players did -- and it was there that the Cavs' front office failed, a failure that triggered the falling of all the dominos that led to Wednesday's Laugh-In.

The Cavs do have a budding superstar -- and diva -- on their roster in Kyrie Irving, and Brown is confident that he can teach the players to be better defensively.

The problem is even if you turn Alonzo Gee into a better defender, when you're done he's still Alonzo Gee.

The Cavs need a serious roster upgrade. They need it done right. They need it done well. And they need it done quickly.

They need to use their cap space and numerous draft picks wisely. They need to make better decisions. Danny Green couldn't get minutes with the Cavs, who released him, and now he's a key contributor on the powerhouse San Antonio Spurs. That can't happen. J.J. Hickson this season averaged a double-double for Portland, not for the Cavs. That can't happen.

Christian Eyenga? Omri Casspi? Can't happen. Can't happen.

The Cavs need to stop collecting draft picks and cap space and start doing something with the picks and the space that they have. Stop unloading. Start loading.

Start building a team.

Trade for usable players. Sign free agents who can be usable players. This is all basic stuff, but it's also stuff the Cavs have done poorly, or not at all.

More than a new coach, the Cavs need a new commitment to making better personnel decisions, and building a roster their new old coach can do something with.

So at the next news conference all the giggling will be genuine, not nervous.